DRDO Invites Applications From Military Officers

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has invited applications from serving officers of the three services already working with it for permanent absorption as civilian officials into its Defence Research and Development Cadre (DRDS).

In a letter dated November 28, the DRDO said, “…service officers in DRDO as well as Permanently Seconded (PS) service officers are eligible for consideration for permanent absorption in civilian capacity in DRDS cadre of DRDO. The officers after absorption in DRDS, will be governed by the DRDS rules as amended from time to time and other rules as applicable to defence civilian employees of the government.”

The deadline for submitting applications is December 20, after which a committee would shortlist eligible officers based on their research experience to the equivalent ranks and research aptitude, among other criteria. There are two ways serving officers are sent to the DRDO — on a fixed tenure, after which they go back to their service, or as PS officers where officers are permanently deputed to DRDO.

The broad eligibility criteria are: service officers on tenure should not be above the age of 50 years as on December 20, 2018, while there is no such stipulation for PS officers.

Another important criteria is that “officers should not have been fully superseded in their parent organisations.”

“There is a small percentage of vacancies among DRDS cadre designated, in which PS officers can be directly absorbed into the DRDO. This absorption is not done regularly and only from time to time, as vacancies arise,” a defence official said.

Once absorbed, the officers will be treated as civilian Scientists for pay and promotion, the official added.

For officers found suitable for absorption, the Scientist grades in which they would be absorbed are: Major and equivalent below 12 years of experience as Scientist C; Major and equivalent with 12 or more years of experience as Scientist D; Lieutenant Colonel and equivalent as Scientist D; Colonel and equivalent as Scientist E; and Brigadiers and equivalent as Scientist F